Hi Everyone, I think Terri's post is interesting. It would seem the more "races" are identified/recognized, the less meaningful the term "race" becomes. Is "race" determined by purely subjective means? After all, "a class or kind of people unified by community of interests, habits, or characteristics" seems an extraordinarily broad definition of "race" offered by Merriam-Websters Dictionary. And how, if at all, does this differ from the definition of ethnic: "large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background"? (Fiona Adams wrote we are all of the human race, but of differing ethnicities. Thomas Kavanagh shot that down, citing ethnicity as cultural and race as biological.) What if someone defines themselves as a member of a certain "race" based on criteria that are considered fraudulent or unacceptable to others? Does this make Star Trek fans a racial group as they share an "interest" (the original show and its spin off shows, movies, products, conventions, etc.) and "habits" (watching or taping television at certain times of the week or day)? And, as most Trekies are American, they might qualify as an ethnic group as their cultural background (American Pop culture of the 20th century) is the same? (BTW, I'm not a Trekie.) As well, by identifying "race," are we contributing to potential discrimination (or reverse discrimination)? Despots, of decades and centuries past, used "race" as a factor in determining who should be persecuted or spared. Where do those who are 1/4th, 1/8th, 1/16th, etc. of a racial group fit in? Interesting psycho-social questions . . . heady stuff. Hope this doesn't go too far off track. Also hope I didn't make any spelling or grammatical mistakes. <smirk> Sincerely, Jay Heuman Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68102 342-3300 (telephone) 342-2376 (fax) www.joslyn.org "You can’t lock up art in a vault and keep it frozen for posterity. Then the artist is betrayed, history is betrayed." (Walter Persegati) > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > On Behalf Of Terri McNichol, Ren Associates > Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 10:20 am > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: subject terms for race > > However, the Census 2000 Summary File 2 data (to be > released soon) contains an iteration of 250 population > groups: the total, 132 race groups, 78 American Indian > and Alaska Native tribe categories, and 39 Hispanic > (or Latino) groups. > Perhaps it furthers the meaning of the richness of diversty > rather than seeing it as based on race alone. ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).